Obeying the Truth

Discretion in the Spiritual Writings of Saint Catherine of Siena

Grazia Mangano Ragazzi

An introduction to Catherine's whole body of writings, with bibliographic references in three languages

First study of the essential concepts discretion and prudence in St. Catherine's writings

Obeying the Truth

Discretion in the Spiritual Writings of Saint Catherine of Siena

Grazia Mangano Ragazzi

Description

In the last century St. Catherine of Siena, an Italian lay woman and mystic of the fourteenth century, was named first a Doctor of the Church and then one of six patron saints of Europe. This recognition of her life and spirituality has been accompanied by increased interest in her writings. Obeying the Truth addresses the key concept of discretion in Catherine's spiritual works. This concept, synonymous with prudence, interacts on many levels with crucial aspects of her teaching. Grazia Mangano Ragazzi argues that discretion, to which Catherine dedicates several passages in her writings, is a helpful, even decisive, tool for interpreting the whole edifice of the saint's spirituality. Providing a textual analysis of discretion in Catherine's major works, Mangano Ragazzi situates Catherine historically through comparison with her predecessors: Augustine, Cassian, Benedict, Gregory the Great, Bernard, Richard of St. Victor, and Thomas Aquinas; and some contemporaries: Domenico Cavalca, Bridget of Sweden, John Colombini, and Raymond of Capua. She goes on to demonstrate how discretion unifies Catherine's spiritual reflection. The book includes a scrupulously selected bibliography of works in English, Italian and French.This is both a focused monograph on discretion and an ideal introduction to the saint's writings. Catherine's insistence that the virtuous life is a pre-requisite for any genuine spiritual experience is a warning that is more necessary today than ever.

Obeying the Truth

Discretion in the Spiritual Writings of Saint Catherine of Siena

Grazia Mangano Ragazzi

Table of Contents

PrefaceAbbreviationsGeneral Introduction

Part 1: Textual Criticism1. Textual criticism of Catherine's writings 2. Composition and authenticity of the Letters 3. Composition and authenticity of the Dialogue 4. Composition and authenticity of the Prayers

Part 2: Analysis 5. A first approach: discretion in the Dialogue 6. An additional perspective: discretion in the Letters7. A final step: discretion in the Prayers

Part 3: Comparison in Historical Perspective8. A brief sketch of the tradition of discretio (including discretio spirituum)9. From Augustine to Aquinas's synthesis of the tradition of discretio with the Aristotelian teaching on prudence10. Domenico Cavalca and some contemporaries of Catherine

Part 4: Synthesis - Discretion Between Mysticism and Morality 11. Catherine's reflection as an exemple of supernatural Christian mysticism12. The central role of discretion in Catherine's spirituality General Conclusions

NotesSelect BibliographyIndex

Obeying the Truth

Discretion in the Spiritual Writings of Saint Catherine of Siena

Grazia Mangano Ragazzi

Author Information

Grazia Mangano Ragazzi is an independent researcher who has lived in Italy, England and France, and now lives in Washington, DC, with her husband. She has theological degrees from the Angelicum (Bologna Studium), Cambridge University, and the Institut Catholique in Paris.

Obeying the Truth

Discretion in the Spiritual Writings of Saint Catherine of Siena

Grazia Mangano Ragazzi

Reviews and Awards

"[An] excellent work...There are few better instructors than St. Catherine, nor many better introductions to her thought than Mangano Ragazzi's book, for Dominicans and all those seeking the ecstatic life of God." --Dominicana

"This book is the fruit of long, rigorous, and passionate study. While addressing a particular theological theme, Dr. Mangano Ragazzi ends up enlightening the whole body of Catherine's theology. The splendor of this theology derives from its vital relationship with God, a gift that Catherine received at an early age. Today the Church, called to announce Christ amidst the unprecedented challenges of the contemporary cultural environment, has an urgent need to learn from Catherine and the other great Doctors of the Church." --H.E. Carlo Cardinal Caffarra, Archbishop of Bologna

"In this admirable book, Dr. Grazia Mangano Ragazzi explores a theme crucial to our personal relations with God and neighbor, namely the exercise of what Catherine calls 'holy discretion.' This virtue encompasses a plurality of human qualities: the ability to distinguish truth from lie, right from wrong, just from unjust, and to judge ideas, actions, and events with the light of faith and with that docility which is the gift of wisdom and comes from the Holy Spirit. Undoubtedly Catherine's reflections, so convincingly summarized by Dr. Mangano Ragazzi, are all the more relevant to the contemporary world, as they teach us that loving the truth serves the good of the human person and the attainment of the highest spiritual values." --Fr. Giovanni Cavalcoli, O.P., Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Theology, Bologna

"Dr. Mangano Ragazzi's book offers a satisfying combination of scholarly rigor and spiritual insight. She prefaces her balanced account-neither skeptical nor piously naive-with the refreshing observation that "there is no trace of sentimentality" in Catherine's writings. In her careful study of St. Catherine's deployment of "discretion" and "prudence," Dr. Mangano Ragazzi manifests a prophetic motivation to redress today's "verbicide" wherein discretion and prudence have been reduced to "timidity" if not "connivance in sin."" --Fr. John Baptist Ku, O.P., Dominican House of Studies

"Scholars of Catherine of Siena will want to read this virtue ethics interpretation of discernment, especially parts II and IV, which offer R.'s original perspective." --Theological Studies

"Dr Grazia Mangano Ragazzi... brings to this distinguished and original study of St Catherine of Siena the kind of passionate lucidity that characterises the saint. The old joke, that mysticism begins in mist and ends in schism, was never less true than for Catherine, and we could say that Dr Mangano Ragazzi shows why in scholarly detail. Now that Catherine's works are available in modern English translation (by Suzanne Noffke), we also have an up-to-date and reliable point of entry in English into the life and thought of a most remarkable saint..." --New Blackfriars